Three Occasions for Orchestra is an orchestral triptych by the American composer Elliott Carter.
The work was composed from 1986 through 1989 and was first performed at the Royal Festival Hall, London, by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Oliver Knussen on October 5, 1989.
[1] Three Occasions has a duration of roughly 16 minutes and is composed in three movements: "A Celebration of Some 100 × 150 Notes" was commissioned by the Houston Symphony for the 150th anniversary of the state of Texas.
[1] The work is scored for an orchestra comprising three flutes (2nd and 3rd doubling piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, two percussionists, piano (doubling celesta), and strings.
"[2] Reviewing a 2006 performance of the work, he wrote, "For all his avant-garde rigour, Carter's music is definitively American, and in Knussen's performance of the exuberant Three Occasions, there was music of glinting, luminous brilliance, like sunlight playing on the glass and steel of New York's skyscrapers.